Silver Booms In All Their Glory
by Tuppence
Summary: What happens when the series ends and Tabby's found wondering around? She's back in the Brotherhood, creating sparls and making things go boom in the night. Maybe a bit too much. She's gotten herself into trouble and somebody knows about it...
1. Chapter I

**Disclaimer****:** I don't own X-Men Evolution or anything to do with them.

**Author's Note****:** My first attempt at an X-Men Evolution story. I hope you guys like this. Any comments, positive or negative, will be welcomed. Constructive criticism will also be treasured – tell me what I'm doing wrong and I promise to try and improve it.

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**Silver Booms In All Their Glory**

**Chapter I**

It was cold. A horribly cold, miserable night and...well, ok. It really wasn't that miserable. The wind was cold but it wasn't raining like it had been earlier, and if it seemed miserable, it was really only because Tabitha herself was miserable.

She wrapped her coat around herself tighter, willing some warmth, any warmth, to stay in. She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking but it was long enough for her to have started shivering and, damn it, she hoped there would be a sign leading to any village, town or city soon! Any signs of civilisation would be wonderful right now, because that would indicate warmth and food and gods was she hungry! She was walking in what she thought or hoped (or rather wondered) was an easterly direction because she had some vague recollections of somebody once telling her to walk east, if she was ever lost. Surrounded by darkness, walking along a lonely stretch of road with no idea where she was or where she was going, she figured she couldn't really get that much more lost than this, so she'd chosen a direction she'd decided was east and had been walking along it for... damn it, for far too long. She clutched the coat tighter around her but there wasn't any warmth left for it to give her.

A distant light broke the darkness and she moved further to the left as she saw the car approaching, unwilling to attract attention when she was feeling so emotional that she was having to fight the impulse to throw her fire bombs around. She'd rather deal with the cold and shivering than some bastard in a car, and it wasn't like she'd never slept rough before, she mused. It was more the suddenness of her situation that had her off her balance.

And all of her stuff was still in the car; she brooded, a furrow forming easily in her forehead and her lips perking into a pout. There were clothes, lots and lots of clothes she could have used for warmth. And her favourite lip gloss was in there too. And food too – little snacks that would be precious in moments such as these. Her stomach replied instantly, giving a disgruntled growl as she sighed and carried on trudging up the road, the car having passed her without seeing her a while back.

And there were sentimental objects in her bag too. Little things she'd kept from people she'd liked or moments that had been precious to her. They were little things, nothing big or flashy or expensive, but they'd meant something to her and now they were lost for good. She fought back a sniffle. Tabitha did NOT cry. Especially not when it was cold and she was trudging up a lonely stretch of the road. She would NOT cry, no matter how much she wanted to right then!

"Tabitha?"

She jumped at the sound of her name being called from seemingly nowhere, until her vision focussed on the dark shape that she could still identify easily as Pietro. Guess one of the gusts of wind hadn't been wind at all, but Speedy speeding by.

"What are you doing here?" His voice held curiosity, confusion and a couple of other emotions, harder to identify.

And instead of answering his question, Tabby did what she did best. She acted impulsively. "Speedy," she squealed, throwing her arms around him and welcoming the heat that radiated from him and onto her. "It's so good to see you." Squeezing him tight one more time, she let go and flashed him one of her brighter smiles. "So what ya doing?"

"I was running home. What are _you_ doing?" He asked, looking at her slightly suspiciously, slightly curiously. He couldn't have explained what was off with her appearance (soaked to the skin, lacking any luggage and walking along a road several dozen miles away from the nearest locale) but there was a particular buzzing that he always associated with something not being right, and that buzzing was present right now. And so, he was looking at her with suspicion as well as curiosity.

"Oh, just walking." Tabby gave a shrug with her words.

"To where?" There was less suspicion and more curiosity in Pietro's voice now.

"Dunno," Tabby replied, again with a careless shrug.

Peering at her closely, Pietro felt his buzzing subside and was satisfied with her answer, never thinking of asking her where she was walking _from_. Out of sheer chivalry that he couldn't suppress in time, he asked her, "Do you want me to carry you to home?" He was almost sure that his face showed as much surprise as Tabby's.

"Sure..." Tabby's voice was uncertain but after a second, she gave him a beaming smile. "You gonna carry me on your back?"

Biting back a groan, Pietro agreed, allowing Tabby to fling her arms around his neck before he helped with wrapping her legs around his waist. She wasn't that heavy; without quite consciously realising it, he knew that she was lighter than she had been before, on the occasional times she had made him carry her home (once, drunk and hilarious). Either way, he grumbled in a sotto voce, sometimes causing her to grumble, twice causing her to smack him lightly on the arm, as he ran along with her. Mostly, it caused her to chuckle and giggle.

Landmarks that felt familiar to Tabby started appearing (although everything seemed similar to one another in the dark, with the rain rushing down again). Nevertheless, it gave her a slightly warm feeling inside that, unfortunately, didn't translate to physical warmth. Still, she'd settle for some sort of emotional warmth right now, and she wasn't as cold as she had been before, Pietro's burning temperature managing to keep the worst of the cold away.

"You could do with losing some weight, ya know," Pietro said, yet again. Having run out of responsive insults or replies, Tabby settled for murmuring an ambiguous hmm and snuggling her left cheek into his back.

"My back's going to be all bendy and broken," Pietro whined again, without a clue as to what reply he was looking for or what he wanted from Tabby. He was never the most introspective of people and, like always, he went with whatever he felt like doing without questioning _why_ he was doing it. Hearing no response, he carried on, "It'll be bent forever, like some creepy hunchback from France." He paused, waiting for a response but hearing none, he threw a glance back at her, wondering if she was asleep. She wasn't. She was looking to her right, a slight frown on her face and a look of total abstraction. He'd seen this face many times before, usually in school or when Toad started talking. They were going through the richer part of town now, and he decided that she was just fantasising about how, one day, she'd marry some rich guy (or sleep with him and sue him) and live in a house just like one of these.

A couple of minutes passed and he slowed down, still coming to an abrupt halt across their family run-down building.

"We're home," He said cheerfully, dropping Tabby's legs so suddenly that they collapsed beneath her weight and she fell down.

"Jackass," she muttered but lacking any real venom. She followed Pietro through the front door, taking a wide-eyed look at what was once her home and might possibly be one again.


	2. Chapter II

**Disclaimer****:** Don't own this, though I wish I did.

**Author's Note****:** Ok, so the last chapter (first chapter) had been written because I had this single scene in mind and I love Tabietro. I was at a loss as to how to continue and where to go with it, so I'm taking it back to its Comic roots, somewhat. Those who have read their Tabitha comics may pick up on the subtle hints I'm throwing out in this chapter but prior knowledge is most definitely not needed. And this chapter may seem rather aimless and pointless but it's essentially setting the scene a bit more and next chapter onwards, there'll be action. As in deaths (past, present or future) kind of action. (Also, I really dislike Jean's character so I'm tempted to completely ignore the ridiculous Dark Phoenix saga. As if she wasn't annoying enough before Phoenix!) Anyway, feedback is always appreciated. I will be giving individual thanks to everyone who reviewed.

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**Silver Booms In All Their Glory**

**Chapter II**

It was different. She hadn't really thought about what she'd expected but it was different. And she couldn't tell why, for the life of her. The TV was still crummy, the place was still a tip, there were empty pizza boxes lying around and somehow, it still _felt_ different. Maybe that Mystique woman was still around?

She glanced around unsurely, Pietro having disappeared again. As expected. But it would've been nice if he'd stuck around long enough to tell her whether she could have her old room or whether there was somebody staying there.

Either way, it was better than any of the alternatives. No rain, no possible psychos driving around, and, ooh, a massively old piece of pizza. Her stomach was desperate for whatever she could get, so she sat down on the couch, eating the pizza (didn't taste bad, despite being old and cold), staring blankly at the TV.

What felt like minutes later, Tabitha found herself waking up to something poking her. Repeatedly. It took a second for her to realise somebody was poking her and another second for her to form a firebomb in her hands.

"Jeez, calm down Tabby." Came a grumbling reply from behind her. "That's what I get for trying to be nice."

"Speedy?" Tabby tried to brush the rest of sleep away from her mind. She was just _too_ tired and after having had little to eat for so long, that one slice of pizza had been enough to zonk her out. "What's up?" She managed to get out through a large yawn.

"Lady-like as always," Came the drawling reply. "I came to give you this." He shoved a familiar green T-Shirt in her face. He'd had enough presence of mind to realise that Tabby didn't have clothes apart from the wet ones she was wearing, and he managed to make the connection between wet clothes and possible cold. And partially, it was just out of familiar habit. He hadn't expected her to be sleeping so easily...or to be so aggressive when he poked her awake. (Yet another one of those familiar habits that seemed to come far too readily to mind.) He shrugged it off. Tabby had always been way too impulsive and she'd always fancied taking erratic as far as she could. Admittedly, he'd admired her a little for that but it had gotten annoying...and explosive sometimes, courtesy of said erratic behaviour. Either way, it was bedtime for him.

It didn't take Tabby long to change out of her wet clothes and into the big T-Shirt she'd borrowed many times in the past and snuggled back down into the couch. No way in hell was she risking a fight with the infamous Mystique. And she was too sleepy to go upstairs anyway.

When she woke up again, there was fortunately no prodding. Instead, there were distant whispered screams of _Gina_ and Blob sitting in front of her, staring. It would've been a lot creepier if it hadn't happened before many times. As it was, all she did was stretch like a cat, yawn widely and muttered a "what's up"?

"Hey Tabby," Blob smiled slowly. "You're back. When did you get back?"

Tabby blinked at him, once again impressed at how little things seemed to faze him, especially considering the recent past. Mutants out in the open and all out war, and he could still just casually accept that Tabby was living here again. God she loved him sometimes.

"Last night. Miss me?" She smiled cheekily. "What's for breakfast?"

"You might wanna watch out for Wanda." Blob ignored her question. "She's in a bad mood. Again."

"Why?"

"Dunnno," he shrugged. "Probably got something to do with Toad stalking her, though."

And for the first time in weeks, Tabby was laughing a very sincere, slightly manic, loud laugh. It was good to be home, even for such a short while. She could enjoy the recuperation, relax her guards just the tiniest bit before moving on, she decided. She'd stick around for a few days and disappear again. _Before_ things caught up with her. They didn't need that headache – they had enough of a mess of their own to clean up, enough baggage to carry and scars to hide. She knew she'd never really been a good person but she had moments when she was considerate and she decided to milk this one for what it was worth.

"_Tabby_?" Lance didn't have Blob's skills of taking things as they were. If the shock in his voice wasn't enough to make Tabby snicker, the open-mouthed expression on his face and the cup of coffee now rolling around on the floor were.

So snickering, she batted her eyelashes. "Morning sunshine. I didn't know you'd be so happy to see me." The look on his face was worth it.

"Who're you?"

Tabitha looked up to find who was presumably Wanda. Huh. Blob was right. She looked pissed as hell. Ah well. "Hi, I'm Tabby. Nice to meet you." She grabbed a hand before she could do whatever her superpowers were and gave it a good shake. She was always told to have a good handshake and once in a while, she actually took people's advice.

"Who?"

"Tabby, Tabitha Smith. Also known as Boom Boom." To demonstrate the reason for her nickname, she formed a little bomb in her right hand, a _very_ little one, and threw it in Lance's direction. The yelp that followed her exit told her that her shot was as accurate as ever. Yup, being back at home, pissing off all these guys whenever she felt like it, this was definitely one of the highs in her life. And maybe if she played it right, she could come here again soon. But for now, it was time for a shower. She may have just moved in last night, uninvited (again) and she may not have clothes to change into but she was damned if she'd let these guys use up any hot water they had.

She ignored the angry "_Tabby_" that was following after her, humming _Highway to Hell_ and dreaming about hot guys in brown leather jackets and devil-may-care smiles when she bumped into Pietro. Not exactly who she'd been imagining but whatever.

"Tabby-it's-really-you-I-thought-I'd-made-it-all-up-last-night-but-you-never-did-tell-me-why-you're-here-so-what-ya-doing-anyway-I-gotta-go-I'm-already-late-for-school-don't-you-dare-leave-without-telling-me-everything-and-get-some-pie-bye." And he was gone as suddenly as he'd appeared. The miracle of it was that she'd somehow understood his top speed words. And onwards for the shower, she thought, picking up _Highway_ _To Hell_ from where she'd left off. It seemed kinda fitting to sing that song, she thought. God knows there's worse places to be with all that anti-mutant sentiment out there and pervs on the prowl. And the Brotherhood wasn't even close to being the worst of the worst. But she was damned if any one of them would end up in heaven after all the crap they did, Lance with his Kitty Kat included. And that's why she loved it here. She fit in. Or used to, anyway, before things had gotten out of hand.

Her smile had disappeared along with her good mood, by the time the shower was on. Yeah, things had changed too much. _She'd_ changed too much. This was home and they were family and that was why she'd have to leave. Soon, she promised herself. Even those damned could have a few moments of peace, right? She did deserve that much still, right? She didn't believe it herself but she was too selfish, too run down right now, too shattered in more ways than one to give up the cold comfort of this home. So yeah, she'd stay for a few days, a week tops, and then blow outta here before anyone could discover what she did and trace it back to here and get these guys into more trouble.

That would've been a good plan if it hadn't already been traced back to her and they weren't already searching for her high and low.


End file.
